François-Marie Firmin , known as Firmin-Girard was a French painter of history, religious subjects, genre scenes, portraits, landscapes, still lifes and flowers. François-Marie Firmin-Girard settled very young in Paris . He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1854, in the workshops of Charles Gleyre and Jean-Léon Gérôme . He won the second prize in Rome in 1861 and set up his studio at the Boulevard de Clichy in Paris. From 1859, he exhibited at the Salon de Paris , then at the Salon des artistes français , obtaining numerous medals. With a style that is sometimes realistic , sometimes close to Impressionism , always with a beautiful light, he paints with equal ease the paintings of history, genre scenes, landscapes and flowers that made him known. Among his many works, one quotes San Sebastian , After the ball , Merchant of flowers , the Bridegrooms , the Terrace in Onival or the Quai with the flowers . Firmin-Girard was certainly one of the most appreciated painters of the public of his time in Paris, but seen as by some, including Emile Zola , as an artist of the most agreed. He was one of the first followers of the station of Onival and built a villa there in 1875. It is established in Onival that it realized numerous canvases of the surroundings. In 1878, the writer and art critic Louis Énault compared the British artist Frederick Goodall with Firmin Girard: “Mr. Goodal is the Firmin Girard of England. The smallest details take on a character of extraordinary strength and truth ” .